MAKING OBAMA'S NEW STRATEGY COUNT FOR NIGERIA, AFRICA

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US PRESIDENT, BARAK OBAMA

Some say Sub-Saharan Africa as a term is derogatory. It is because this is a geographical term that refers to the area of the continent of Africa that lies south of the Sahara, and the area that lies south of the Sahara has its problems. They are no flattering problems, it must be stated. Now, the president of the United States says he has a strategy of how to deal with Sub-Saharan Africa and its problems. One must develop strategies to deal with peculiar problems. To know where issues are, Barack Obama does not even need to count the number of military coups, not the number of leaders that rule for almost three decades, and never the fertile land where people suffer from hunger, including West Africa of all places. A conference was held in that part of the sub-continent on how to get food to the hungry lately.

So Obama comes up with a strategy; one that shows he sees things where leaders here see nothing. And he had seen for the first time when he visited the continent in 2009, stood in Accra Ghana, and spoke to Africa: “I see Africa as a fundamental part of our interconnected world,” he had said at the time. He is still seeing midway into 2012 from his desk in the White House. So he released a document that outlines what he intends to do in the continent. The New Strategy Toward Sub-Saharan Africa, is what he called this one. New is the right word. Anyone knows previous strategies might not have been so effective. What this strategy contains show what his target part of the continent lacks. One can wager he doesn’t need to look beyond Nigeria when he cobbled his strategy, although he says it is for Sub-Saharan Africa. Let the reader identify on his fingers the problems in Sub-Saharan Africa that Nigeria does not represent. No wonder the new strategy of the US president states that it provides a proactive and forward looking vision grounded in partnership. That’s for starters. It sets forth four strategic objectives, basically.

Obama intends to strengthen democratic institutions. That’s number one. This commits the United States to work to advance democracy by strengthening institutions at every level, supporting and building upon the aspirations throughout the continent for more open and accountable governance, promoting human rights and the rule of law, and challenging leaders whose actions threaten the credibility of democratic processes. As the President said in Ghana, "Africa does not need strong men, it needs strong institutions." Does any Nigerian think the nation does not need it? That, in a situation where heads of institutions here check first to see the body language of the man in the presidential villa before they take action?

Two, the US president wants to spur Economic Growth, Trade, and Investment. This is through greater focus, engagement, and the deployment of additional resources. The new strategy commits the United States to work to promote economic growth, including through increased trade and investment in sub-Saharan Africa. The United States will promote an enabling environment for trade and investment; improve economic governance; promote regional integration; expand African capacity to effectively access and benefit from global markets; and encourage U.S. companies to trade with and invest in Africa. Three, the US president wants to advance Peace and Security. This commits the US to deepen its security partnership with African countries and regional organizations to meet the basic security needs of its people. Only Africa's governments and people can sustainably resolve the security challenges and internal divisions that have plagued the continent, but the United States can make a positive difference. And Obama would want to promote opportunity and development. For the Yankees, nowhere in the world are their development efforts more central to their engagement as they are in Africa. So the Americans will continue working to focus on sustainable development outcomes.

Those strategies are not off the mark for a sub-continent that is confronted with problems as diverse as political upheavals occasioned by sit-tight leaders, and institutions that are too weak to check excesses of political leadership. Perhaps, and of most importance among these strategies is the plan to strengthen institutions. For countries on the continent, including Nigeria, foremost of such institutions to be strengthened should be the anti-corruption agencies. The role such emphasis can play in moving African countries forward is not little. When a former chief of anti-corruption commission in Nigeria was removed months back, ambassadors of various countries that had expressed doubts about the capability and the integrity of the out-gone chief, paid courtesy calls on the new one. As such, if a country such as the US comes up with a new strategy to strengthen an institution like Nigeria’s EFCC and its sister organizations across the continent, it cannot but be a worthwhile effort.

For instance, the Centre for African Democratic Affairs, CADA, Ghana, points out that: “In spite of significant advances made by several African countries since the inception of the AU in 2002, the continent continued to be hampered by high incidence of corruption and extreme poverty that cost the continent billions of dollars a year and slowed down economic growth and over all development.” And it further argues that, “If killing a million people in the Rwandan genocide of 1994…constitutes a crime then it should also be a crime to cause millions of innocent Africans, especially the vulnerable ones like children and the elderly to die either from hunger and malnutrition, extreme poverty or through the lack of adequate healthcare because of misrule and corruption.” The body therefore calls for the introduction of an “Economic Crime Against Humanity” law in African countries, to try rulers who have caused their people to die needlessly through bad governance and dysfunctional leadership.” Obama’s new strategy may give this attention for the benefits therein, especially in a place like Nigeria where corruption has risen from Abuja far up into other planets.

There is something to a situation where other countries think, strategize, and envision for Africa. Yes, this is enlightened self-interest at its height. But in it is a benefit for a continent that doesn’t seem to want to get out of the dungeon into which leaders here have put it. Sometimes, the sub-continent takes one step forward on a basic issue, and ten steps backwards on the same. Perhaps, promptings such as what the US president has in mind will come in handy, as it had on a couple of occasions in the past. If there is nothing else that the promptings of foreign countries can help to achieve, they keep leaders in this part aware that others are watching, are ready to act. That may go a long way in ensuring that Sub-Saharan Africa keeps marching forward, however slowly this may be.

Written By Tunji Ajibade
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